6.3 quake in Italy wrecks historic area's past, future

ROME — Past glories and future hopes came crashing down in central Italy amid a powerful earthquake Monday that crumbled centuries-old churches and claimed the lives of at least 150 people, leaving hundreds more injured and thousands homeless.

Rescue workers in the mountainous region of Abruzzo toiled through the night searching for survivors buried in the rubble of buildings that, in some cases, had stood since medieval times.

The city of L'Aquila, near the quake's epicenter, was transformed from a historic town of 70,000 and built of warm honey-colored stone into a disaster scene cloaked in choking gray dust.

Residents who had been sleeping peacefully were jolted awake by the 6.3 temblor, which ripped through the area about 3:30 a.m. after weeks of tremors and subterranean rumbles that hinted at the possibility of worse to come.

The U.S. Geological Survey said it was one of several quakes to hit the region overnight.

Among the hardest-hit places was Onna, a rural village of less than 400 people. At least 37 residents of the village died, the ANSA news agency reported. Nearly all of Onna's older two- and three-story stone houses had been reduced to rubble.

The violent shaking in L'Aquila leveled homes and dislodged masonry that smashed to pieces on the pavement or crushed cars like paper.

Survivors wandered around, dazed, for hours, some of them still in their pajamas, others clutching mementos and random belongings grabbed before the rush outside into predawn blackness.

With an unknown number of victims still believed trapped under debris, authorities said up to 50,000 residents were made homeless by the temblor.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi declared a state of emergency and canceled a trip to Moscow. Meanwhile, critics complained of official failure to strengthen buildings in an area prone to seismic activity.

Repeated tremors had been reported over the past few months in Abruzzo, which led one local scientist to warn of an impending large quake before authorities blamed him for causing public panic with allegedly unfounded predictions.

As dusk fell and temperatures dropped, relief workers pitched tents for displaced people. Officials said 4,000 hotel rooms would be set aside for refugees.

Strong aftershocks rattled nerves, complicated the rescue effort and caused weakened buildings in L'Aquila to shed tiles in sprays that forced bystanders to scurry for cover.

"The damage is incalculable. Entire buildings have collapsed, innumerable homes destroyed or rendered unsafe. Many public buildings have been damaged," said Stefania Pezzopane, the president of the province, to an Italian news agency.

Among the fallen structures were churches and other buildings of inestimable historical value, according to Italy's Ministry of Culture.

The apse of L'Aquila's Basilica di Santa Maria di Collemaggio, a pink-and-white architectural gem that had witnessed a papal coronation in A.D. 1294, collapsed. The temblor also razed an archway built in the 16th century to honor the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.

The tower of the city's Renaissance-era Church of St. Bernardino came tumbling down, as did part of a castle from the same period, which now houses a national museum.

Old churches and castles dot the scenic Abruzzo countryside, making it a popular tourist destination. But authorities appealed to visitors to refrain from visiting so as not to hamper relief efforts.

Outlying villages were hard hit, with one hamlet, Onna, completely flattened, local media reported.

In some places, volunteers and rescue workers scrabbled at debris with their bare hands, afraid that heavy equipment might cause further damage. They shushed onlookers in order to catch the possible cries or scratchings of survivors beneath the rubble. As darkness fell, rain made the work even more difficult.

Earlier in the day, a man in L'Aquila clad only in his underwear and coated in dust sobbed in his rescuer's arms after being pulled out.

But others were not so lucky, their broken bodies covered with sheets out on the streets before the coffins began arriving to take the dead.

Local hospitals, some of them too compromised structurally to receive patients, were stretched to the limit. Only one or two operating rooms were available, forcing ambulances to ferry some of the injured to Rome, local media reported.

Other countries have offered assistance, but the head of Italy's civil-defense agency said none was needed immediately.

The Abruzzo region has long been an earthquake hot spot. A devastating temblor in January 1915 killed 33,000 people.

Seismic activity is relatively common in Italy, but the intensity of the earthquake on Monday was rare. It was the worst in Italy since a 6.9-magnitude earthquake struck Eboli, near Naples, in 1980, killing nearly 3,000 people.

The last major quake to hit central Italy struck the Molise region in 2002, killing 28 people, including 27 children who died when their school collapsed.

Speaking on Rainews 24, a new channel on state television, Guido Bertolaso, Italy's senior civil-protection official, said that the earthquake was "comparable if not superior to the one which struck Umbria in 1997."

That quake killed 10 people and damaged medieval buildings across the region, including Assisi's famed basilica with its Giotto frescoes.